In December, espnWs weekly essay series will focus on family.In college, when I began dating the man who would become my husband, he told me that his family loved baseball.Okay, I said, treating the news as if hed said they all liked the color blue -- a fine distinguishing characteristic, but nothing that had anything to do with me.No, you dont understand. My brother plays baseball in college, he insisted. I spent my whole life going to baseball games and tournaments.I nodded.Growing up, my father was the only one who liked sports, hed rush us home from church on Sunday so he didnt miss his religious programming. A Dallas Cowboys game.?The importance of my sports knowledge didnt sink in until my then-boyfriends father, Gary, started greeting me at the door on my visits to their house with a baseball trivia question.You cant come in until you tell me what number Kirby Puckett was.Ill answer your question when you can name five Faulkner novels, Id say and duck under his arm.To understand us, you have to understand baseball, Dave once told me over a dinner of burgers at our favorite diner. I shrugged.Whats to understand?The second year we were dating, I started my senior year of college. One of the classes I signed up for was on Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. I loved Faulkner, whose wild characters and dense prose often made me laugh out loud. But I cared nothing for Hemingway. I hated his female characters and the cold feel of his short sentences. But I couldnt take a class on one without the other, so I signed up.We began that semester with Hemingways short stories, starting with the collection The Snows of Kilimanjaro and then moving onto?In Our Time. I was surprised at how often sports were on the periphery of his writing -- the depressed prize fighter in The Killers, the match fixing in Fifty Grand and hunting in The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.It was something Id never noticed before, how consumed with physical action his characters were, how sport gave them an identity, whether real or imagined, that could in turn devastate and define who they were.I told Gary I was reading Hemingway.Oh, hes my favorite author, he said on one of my visits. I was shocked. I didnt think he read anything besides books on management and Mickey Mantle biographies. He told me his favorite book was Old Man and the Sea, and I rolled my eyes.Hey, I guess Im not an English major, he said, so I cant tell you why I like it, just that I think it means something to me. He smiled, but I could tell he meant it. When I picked up In Our Time, I decided just to read it like Gary would, without prejudice.The Three-Day Blow is everything I hate in a story -- boys going into the woods to talk about women and get drunk. But when I read it that fall, I was 21 and in love with a boy who loved baseball. Reading the story again, I saw baseball in a way Id never seen it before. Upset over a breakup, Nick Adams, a character who became an alter-ego for Hemingway, goes to a cabin with his friend Bill. They get drunk on whiskey and talk about women, but that topic contains mystery and heartbreak. So, they talk baseball. Alternating between love and disillusionment for the sport, their words become metaphors for the other things they cant bring themselves to say. When Nick declares ...baseball is a game for louts he might as well be saying love is a game for louts.Baseball is more than a metaphor in this story. It is a thing wholly and completely on its own, a series of events, small stories, with characters and plot, which give the two boys a common language and experience.When all else failed, baseball was a way to be part of something together -- some way to touch and connect with something great, to believe that whatever else fails, here is a thing that mattered, a place where winning was possible, and hope always prevailed. After all, win or lose, the only guarantee is that there will be more games and another season, another chance.That same semester, during Thanksgiving break, as I began to write my final paper for the class on baseball, Hemingway and love, Dave asked me to marry him under the stars while we danced as Carole Kings Far Away played from the CD player on his Mazda. We went back to his parents house and told them.After hugging me, Gary and my soon-to-be brother-in-law took me to the basement to watch the Twins 1991 World Series video. I laughed, but I watched the whole thing, listening to their analysis and finally memorizing Kirby Pucketts number, 34.Lyz Lenzs writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Marie Claire, Pacific Standard, Buzzfeed and the LA Review of Books. She lives in Iowa, but you can find her on Twitter @lyzl Adidas Ultra Boost Cheap Sale . LOUIS -- Attorneys for the St. Adidas Ultra Boost Sale .Y. -- The Buffalo Sabres have placed centre Cody Hodgson on injured reserve and recalled two players from their AHL affiliate in Rochester. http://www.cheapultraboost.net/ . After a first half in which he thought "the lid was on the basket," the Toronto Raptors coach watched his squad mount a second half surge to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-91. Adidas Ultra Boost Online Sale . Giroud, who wasnt in the starting lineup for two matches after allegations about his private life and a decline in form, scored twice in the first half. Tomas Rosickys chip made it 3-0 before half time at Emirates Stadium, while defender Laurent Koscielny scored an unmarked header in the second half. Adidas Ultra Boost Clearance . After slipping from the summit during the week, the Gunners overcame struggling Crystal Palace 2-0 on Sunday thanks to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlains second-half brace. Newcomers dont take long to impact college basketball -- not in this world of one-and-dones and transfers. Over a two-week span, we will look at the top five newcomers in each of the 10 biggest conferences. Next up is the ACC.A teeming ocean of talent is crashing the Atlantic Coast this summer. Ten of the top 28 players in the Class of 2016s ESPN 100 will play in the ACC in 2016-17. Six different programs are represented in that list. Some of them will need their talented youngsters to step up right away. Some can afford a slower, less pressurized development curve. One is the obvious national title favorite. (Guess who?)Any ACC-newcomers list requires more slots than we currently have at our disposal. Which, in turn, means these five dudes must be pretty good.Harry Giles, Duke Blue DevilsAs we covered in last weeks Big 12 rundown, there was no clear consensus about the top overall pick in Chad Fords first 2017 Big Board. For now, the closest thing Fords assorted scouts and sources have to offer is this: If Giles is healthy, hes the easy choice.Health is the only pertinent discussion worth having about the No. 1 player in the class of 2016. Giles eventual draft fortunes will directly proceed from how well he plays during his freshman season at Duke; his ability to do so will hinge on how well he has recovered from two separate ACL tears in high school. The latest of the two came in November 2015, and cost Giles basically all of his senior season. As recently as June, per the News & Observers Laura Keeley, Dukes staff was still bringing Giles along slowly, focusing mostly on rehabilitation and making no promises that hed be ready by the start of the season.All of which, in a roundabout way, is a good way of hammering home just how good Giles is: He tore two ACLs in three years and he was still the best player in a loaded class.Jayson Tatum, Duke Blue DevilsDuke can afford to bring its top prospect along as slowly as he needs, mostly because there are an embarrassing wealth of options around him. Its one thing to land the nations best freshman; its another to corral three of the best 10, and four of the best 16; its yet another to add those players to a group of veterans like this one. Senior Amile Jefferson, back by the grace of a medical redshirt, will be one of the sturdiest and most experienced frontcourt players in the country. Guard Matt Jones has huge minutes under his belt. Rising sophomore Luke Kennard is a gifted perimeter scorer -- nearly as gifted as Grayson Allen, who carried a massive load, and did so with remarkable efficiency, in his breakout sophomore season.Under relatively normal circumstances, a veteran team like this would have filled a need or two in recruitment, maybe landed an elite prospect, and been very, very good. These are not exactly normal circumstances.Thats because Duke is also bringing in the third-ranked overall player in the Class of 2016, small forward Tatum. He is a preternaturally polished attacker who just needs to add a perimeter shot to be unstoppable, and at 6-foot-8 he possesses the length and athleticism to be a dominant wing defender. A few months under coach Mike Krzyzewski should help in that regard.Austin Nichols, Virginia CavaliersFreshmen arent the only genus in the newcomer family. There are also transfers -- a taxonomic population still reproducing at a remarkable year-over-year rate. Whatever the systemic reasons for this increase (and thats a topic for a different day), the appeal is obvious. For players, a ttransfer is a hunt for more minutes or a better stylistic fit or an NCAA tournament appearance.dddddddddddd Sometimes, a year spent practicing but not playing is just what the doctor ordered. For coaches, a transfer is a chance to add a proven quantity -- a player whos ready to play from the moment he is eligible.All of the above are likely to apply in some form to Nichols, a 6-foot-8 forward who departed for Charlottesville last summer after two promising but occasionally listless years at Memphis. A year off is likely to have expanded Nichols game, particularly on offense (as it did for Malcolm Brogdon and Anthony Gill). What is certain is that the big mans natural defensive talents -- he swatted 12.5 percent of opponents attempts as a sophomore, the eighth-highest block rate in the country that season -- are going to pair extremely well with coach Tony Bennetts pack-line style. Freshmen, no matter how talented, are rarely this guaranteed.Jonathan Isaac, Florida State SeminolesIsaac debuted at No. 8 on Fords Big Board, drawing a minor comparison to 2016s No. 2 overall pick, Duke forward?Brandon Ingram. The biggest question is whether, like Ingram, Isaac is either a)?skilled enough to overcome his slight frame against daunting defense early on, or b) capable of adding enough mass and strength that by January it wont bother him. Ingram did both, but it isnt easy.Also tricky? Florida States roster. Its an impressive position-less menagerie: Rising sophomore?Dwayne Bacon was the schools highest-ranked recruit ever, before Isaac showed up. Junior Xavier Rathan-Mayes was coach Leonard Hamiltons offensive workhorse two seasons ago.?Malik Beasleys departure to the NBA, if not surprising, took the Seminole enthusiasm down a half-peg?or so ... but not enough to keep them out of the Way-Too-Early Top 25.The question is whether, and how, all of these pieces fit, and what Hamilton will do to fill in the gaps (mostly on defense) around them. Even so, Isaacs potential, on both ends of the floor, is limitless.Tyus Battle, Syracuse OrangeA handful of ACC newcomers claim loftier recruiting rankings than Syracuses star freshman, who sits at No. 35. Yet it feels to safe to say that none will be as important to their teams success, for better or worse, than Battle.Duke point guard?Frank Jackson, for instance, is doubtlessly talented, but he is joining a loaded veteran-led backcourt that can more than get by if he gets off to a rough nonconference start. Battle,?on the other hand, looks like a must-have piece for coach Jim Boeheim, even by default. This spring, Syracuse lost its best player, Michael Gbinije, a converted small forward-turned-point guard, as well as four-year stalwart Trevor Cooney. Meanwhile, after freshman?Malachi Richardsons draft stock soared into offer-you-cant-refuse territory, he did the?sensible thing and took the NBA up on it. Richardsons departure was a minor shock; suddenly?Franklin Howard, a little-used reserve freshman, was Boeheims most?experienced backcourt returner.The Orange have a chance to be pretty good next season, particularly if?Tyler Lydon?truly blossoms into the 3-and-D monster he advertised as last March. But if Syracuse is good, it will almost?certainly be because Battle is both better than expected on the offensive end and yet another of the Boeheim zones dominant disrupters on the other end. No pressure, kid. ' ' '